Julie from Jacksonville, Florida, shares a lovely story of her husband’s increasing use of the word Ta-da! In lieu of other words or to point out a success. Ta-da! references the sound of a musical flourish, such as that of a trumpet. This is...
A caller with a 25-year-old parrot wonders: How much language do birds really understand? Plus, Knock-knock. Who’s there? Boo. Well… you can guess the rest. But there was a time when these goofy jokes were a brand-new craze sweeping the nation...
On the spur of the moment means doing something suddenly or spontaneously. The expression comes from a horse rider’s spur, a sharp device used to urge a horse forward. The image is of action encouraged in the moment rather than through a careful...
A bank teller suffered a brain injury and now sometimes finds it hard to remember simple words. She wants a succinct way to explain to her customers why she’s having difficulty. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “When...
When you get to the end of a wonderful book, your first impulse is to tell someone else about it. In this week’s episode, Martha and Grant discuss what they’ve been reading and the delights of great prose. You’ll find information...
Do you ever stare at a word so long that you think it’s mispellllled? Even though it isn’t? Your dialectal duo hunt up a word for that phenomenon. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word Satiation” Hello, you...